Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly

Inspired by an event in the author's life, a bit of "film noir" on paper

First published in 2003.

If you are familiar with the movie style called "film noir" than you get a good idea what Chasing the Dime is like. In a "film noir" movie the protagonist is a regular guy with a secret. He gets sucked into the criminal underworld (or into the world of spies) by events he cannot control and does not understand. Betrayals make him question everything and his old life is shattered.

Well, all of that happens here. Henry Pierce gets a new phone number and a series of calls intended for the old owner of the number. He gets curious as he tries to tell the old owner, a prostitute who advertises herself on a porn site as an escort, to change her number. From that point on he gets sucked in to an out of control situation.

I wasn't in to this one for the first 75 pages or so. But, once it gets going this one really had me. Connelly noted in the book that he was inspired to write this book when he got a new phone number and got a number of questionable phone calls.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Chasing the Dime.

The Petty Story & The Wrestler DVD

 Not a great movie, but a must for Richard Petty and early NASCAR fans (from a Petty fan from way back)

Just so you know, I've given this movie 4 stars - not because it is a great movie. It is not, unless you are a die hard Petty fan. But, it is a valuable piece of NASCAR history - a little gem that I picked up in the super-cheap DVD section of a local store. It is a snapshot of the beginnings of the modern heyday of stock car racing.

Released in 1972 and full of footage from the early days of NASCAR, the production values in this one are not great, which is a mixed blessing. The old footage does not stick out from the rest of the film because the film itself is pretty grainy and has questionable sound at times.

Richard Petty plays himself and he comes off as a fairly wooden actor, which would be a pretty unfair assessment to make if you are not familiar with Richard's personality. He is slow-talking (careful with his words), casual, straight-backed and was as hard a driver as there ever was. So, Petty pretty much plays himself as I've always seen him.

Long-time mechanic Dale Inman plays himself. Darren McGavin (most famous for his role as the dad in "A Christmas Story") plays Lee Petty and Noah Beery, Jr. (most famous for his role as Rockford's dad in "The Rockford Files") plays Richard Petty's grandfather.

The plot of the movie is basically a set of flashbacks from the Petty family while Richard is in the hospital after a bad wreck in the World 600.

The 2nd movie on the disc is "The Wrestler" starring Ed Asner. It was released in 1974. Asner is a wrestling promoter. The movie features a number of famous wrestlers from the old days such as Dick the Bruiser, Ric Flair, and Dusty Rhodes. The sound quality on my DVD was very poor (very quiet).

I rate this DVD 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Petty Story & The Wrestler.


Reviewed on November 25, 2007.

A Committee of One and Other Essays by Chuck Avery

Thoughtful Ruminations of a born and bred Hoosier

Published in 1997 by D and C Publishing

Chuck Avery writes a column for the Richmond Palladium-Item, the local paper in Richmond, Indiana. His typical essay could be classified as one of those slice-of-life pieces - a little reminiscing, a little wry observation, a bit of good-natured humor. Avery is also a teacher.

I never heard of Chuck Avery before I picked up this book at a local book sale (ironically, he describes picking up books in a similar sale in one of his essays  - the essay that gives the book its title). A Committee of One is one of those rare books that gets better as it goes along.

I particularly enjoyed the essays "Clevenger's Pond" (a humorous look at human nature and why his farm pond is no longer open to the public), "The Allure of Instant Esteem" (a look at the self-esteem movement in the classroom and why it makes no sense unless you have actually done something), "Solitude and Reform" (the world of instant communication vs. the need to talk to those closest to us and even to work on ourselves).

I particularly liked this serious line from a humorous essay called "Food: The Chore of Eating:" 

"In our continuing effort to make life effortless, we have made child rearing frightening to parents, pushed education beyond the scope of even the most competent teachers, confounded the family to the point that we must have psychologists to untangle relationships."

A little humor, some serious points. All in all, a good read.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A Committee of One and Other Essays.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Great Tales from English History, Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA (audiobook) by Robert Lacey

An Entertaining Take on English History

Published in 2007 by W.F. Howes Ltd.
Read by the author, Robert Lacey
Duration: 6 hours, 15 minutes

Abridged.

Robert Lacey's quirky 3 volume collection Great Tales from English History was truly a joy to listen to. Volume III ran from the late 17th century to the 1990s and covered such topics as John Locke, The Boston Tea Party (a remarkably even-handed presentation of the American Revolution in general), King George III, the beginnings of the Methodist movement, the Industrial Revolution, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Darwin, Queen Victoria and World Wars I and II.

If you are listening to this audiobook to get a complete history of England, you will be sorely disappointed. This series cherry picks the interesting and fun stories (the type I love to tell  in the classroom) and strings them together for a most entertaining listen.

Lacey reads the book himself and does a very good job. Sometimes it can be a problem when the author reads his or her own work in an audiobook format but as a reader Lacey was everything a listener could ask for.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Great Tales from English History Volume III: Cheddar Man to DNA by Robert Lacey.

Reviewed on February 18, 2012.

Note: The links provided here are to an abridged re-working of the audiobook I listened to. I could not find the exact version I listened to. This would also be a great listen, but not of all of the same stories in the same volume. It looks like the has publisher rearranged the same stories into different volumes.

Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again by Kevin Freeman

Exposes the vulnerable state of the American (and the world) economy

Published in 2012 by Regnery Publishing, Inc.

When I was reading Secret Weapon I was tempted to make a sort of smart-aleck introduction about the complex nature of Kevin Freeman's warning about the dangers we face by way of economic terrorism. After all, Paul Revere just rode through the streets yelling, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" and that was enough. But, after a little thought I realized that Freeman can't just yell, "The economic terrorists are coming! The economic terrorists are coming!" It has to be explained and that explanation is long and can be full of statistics and new terminologies.

I am a licensed high school economics teacher and I can honestly say that I knew just enough about finance, the real nitty-gritty of the to and fro of the markets, to say that this book is downright scary. It is the proverbial "firebell in the night" that screams out that we have some serious weaknesses in the way we do business in America (and the rest of the free world as well). Some of this information was completely new to me (I am an econ teacher, but let's face it, high school economics is pretty basic stuff - I consider myself an informed entry level amateur in the world of finance - I know enough to know that I don't know much).

Freeman lays out evidence that we may have already been hit by economic terrorists - and more than once. Someone may have gotten quite wealthy on 9/11 due to foreknowledge of the attacks and we may have been hit again in 2008. On page 177 he has an interesting section called "A Failure of Imagination." To me, this section was a microcosm of the whole book. It seems that no one in authority has imagined that someone might be willing to risk a fortune to derail our economy because of the basic rule of economics that states that people tend to act in an economically rational way (this is the kind of stuff high school econ teachers like me stress).  But, if someone is willing to die to crash a plane in a building or to blow up a crowded street market, why not risk a few billion to bring the entire Western economy to its knees?

Freeman's message? Wall Street needs to watch out
for economic terrorism. Will they?
That remains to be seen.

I do not know if we have actually been victimized already, but the combination of massive government debt loads, dependence of foreign oil, lack of market transparency and tolerance of naked short selling and credit default swaps leaves us open to these sorts of attacks. Our financial front door is wide open and our economy is subject to manipulation by any number of foreign powers.

So, despite the jargon, Freeman's message came through loud and clear: We are at risk. Now, if only we could come up with some sort of catchy phrase like "The British are coming!" Perhaps, "Credit default swaps leave the entire market at risk of foreign manipulation and should be highly scrutinized by an independent agency!"

Nope. It just doesn't have the same ring, does it?

Nonetheless, I hope Freeman continues to shout it out to anyone who will listen.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Secret Weapon.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on February 12, 2012.

The First Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery (Dharma Detective #1) by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

A twist on the L.A. detective novel

Published in 2012 by  Hay House Visions.

For years, Los Angeles has been the home of the detective story. For Raymond Chandler, Dragnet, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly and even videogames like L.A. Noire, Los Angeles has been the seedy, diverse world that has all of the secrets that our intrepid detective heroes must dig up and expose.

The First Rule of Ten brings us a different take on the L.A. Detective STory. Tenzing Norbu (he goes by Ten) is a different kind of detective in that he grew up in a monastery and used to be a Buddhist monk but moved to America at the age of 18. His literary hero is Sherlock Holmes and he has just retired from LAPD as a detective because the job was simply getting too bureaucratic - too much paperwork, not enough mystery-solving.

Ten may not be a monk any longer but he is still a practicing Buddhist. That's a different twist, and in some ways a refreshing twist on the stereotype of the alcohol-abusing chain smoking detective. Not that Ten is a prude, but he is mindful of what he does to his body,

But, this fresh character would be pointless if the story were poor. I am glad to say that this mystery is interesting and the story comes to a satisfying conclusion. This was an enjoyable read and I will keep my eyes open for more stories of Tenzing Norbu.

I was offered this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Edit: March 30, 2013: See my review of The Second Rule of Ten by clicking here.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 
The First Rule of Ten: A Tenzing Norbu Mystery (Tenzing Norbu Mysteries)

Reviewed on February 11, 2012.

1812: A Novel by David Nevin

Good - but comes with problems

Published in 1996.

If you do not already know something about the War of 1812, I cannot recommend this book for your reading pleasure. Why not? The author, David Nevin, goes into the story without much of an explanation of who the characters are and just assumes you know who they are. I would have recommended a small two to three page introduction that laid out the issues of the day and something about the personalities of the day as well.

Instead, we spend page after page getting these introductions as a part of the story. Along the way, Nevin introduces us to the innermost thoughts of such people as James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott and Dolley Madison. Nevin seems fascinated in exploring each of these characters as sexual beings. We get to read about James Madison's lusting for Dolley (he refers to her breasts so often that I blush when I see Madison in my history book).

However, the book is saved by his descriptions of the battles. They are very well done.

Dolley Madison (1768-1849)

If you don't know your War of 1812, be sure to keep your computer handy so you can check the 'net to learn the background material to the things Nevin is referring to.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 1812: A Novel.

Reviewed on December 7, 2007.